Reflections on the 2026 Session

Reflections on the 2026 Session

Now that the legislative session has ended, I finally have had some time to catch my breath and do a little writing, I want to share with you some of the most important bills 1) passed out of the legislature and 2) passed out of Senate Natural Resources and Energy, which I chaired, and then 3) I want to highlight what I'm at least currently perceiving as priorities going into next session. 
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Bill Highlights from the Session

H.955 - Education and Property Tax Reform 
This bill aims to reduce property taxes, while preserving a quality education for all Vermont students.

• It requires that all school districts be a part of a CESA (a Cooperative Education Service Agency), which is a group of school districts that would collaboratively contract for services like professional development, special education, IT, etc. This should help save money simply from economies of scale. Maine, Mississippi, Montana, and West Virginia all have similar structures.
• This bill requires that all districts are a part of a set of districts that would get together to discuss the feasibility of merging, keeping an emphasis on preserving small elementary schools and have more regional high schools.
• It sets in motion a 2nd home tax. Currently, in a third to a half of our towns, second homes pay a lower rate than primary residences because they are considered commercial property.
• It sets us on a path to have a foundation formula, which would provide a certain amount of money to the district for each student, adjusted based on the needs of those students. I had a lot of concerns about this, as I don't want education funding to be a political football, and everywhere else that has a foundation formula under-funds its schools, but there is a board who determines what the formula should be, so it should be somewhat insulated from political winds. 
• It ramps down the excess spending threshold from 118% to 112.5% by 2032. I don't love this provision, as some school districts have done all of the belt-tightening that they can reasonably achieve without cutting staff or programs (some have already cut staff or programs). 
• There's more in there, but those are some highlights. You can read more about it here.

S.190 - Healthcare Reform: Reference-Based Pricing
Reference-based pricing is a system that limits the amount a hospital can charge for a particular service to a percentage of the Medicare reimbursement rate. This has been a proven way to reduce healthcare costs in other states. We had already started down the path of reference based pricing, but this bill speeds up the timeline and applies it particularly to the healthcare coverage for public school employees, as a means for lowering property taxes.  You can read more about it here. 

S.298 – Vermont Voting Rights Act 
Strengthens protections against voter intimidation and reduces barriers to participation while improving access for historically underrepresented communities. You can read the bill that passed the House and the Senate here. 

S.209 - Prohibits Civil Arrests at Sensitive Locations
Given the atrocious behavior of ICE, people are afraid to go about their daily lives - going to the doctor, to drop their kids off at school, etc. Here I think the bill says it best: "A person shall not be subject to civil arrest while:

• (A) traveling to, entering, remaining at, or returning from a:
  • (i) court proceeding; or
  • (ii) educational institution; or
• (B) on the premises of a:
  • (i) building owned and wholly controlled by the State or a political subdivision of the State where members of the public may enter in order to conduct governmental business; 
  • (ii) office operated by the Department of Motor Vehicles that is open to the public;
  • (iii) public library;
  • (iv) polling place;
  • (v) social services establishment, which includes a crisis center, domestic violence shelter, victim services center, child advocacy center, supervised visitation center, family justice center, facility that serves disabled persons, homeless shelter, substance use disorder counseling and treatment facility, and food pantry or similar establishment that distributes food or other essentials of life to persons in need;
  • (vi) place of worship;
  • (vii) facility licensed as a children’s camp or that serves as a day camp; or
  • (viii) health care facility.

Two Constitutional proposals: 
It's important because you're going to be asked to vote on these in November. 

Prop. 3 – Right to Organize Amendment
Places a constitutional amendment before Vermont voters to enshrine the right to form a union and collectively bargain. Here is the language from this document (you can read it on page 88).

Article 23. [Right to collectively bargain] That employees have a right to organize or join a labor organization for the purpose of collectively bargaining with their employer through an exclusive representative of their choosing for the purpose of negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions and to protect their economic welfare and safety in the workplace. Therefore, no law shall be adopted that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to collectively bargain with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and workplace safety, or that prohibits the application or execution of an agreement between an employer and a labor organization representing the employer’s employees that requires membership in the labor organization as a condition of employment.
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Prop. 4 – Equal Rights Amendment
Places a constitutional amendment before Vermont voters to strengthen equal rights protections in the Vermont Constitution. If approved, it will reaffirm Vermont's longstanding commitment to equality, dignity, and freedom from discrimination. Here is a copy/paste of the language from this document: 

Article 23. [Equality of rights] That the people are guaranteed equal protection under the law. The State shall not deny equal treatment under the law on account of a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin. Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted or applied to prevent the adoption or implementation of measures intended to provide equality of treatment and opportunity for members of groups that have historically been subject to discrimination.

Bill Highlights from Senate Natural Resources and Energy

 ReH.915 - The Bottle Bill
This bill transitions the structure of the bottle redemption system (it creates a Producer Responsibility Organization - let me know if you'd like me to explain), which will help modernize our redemption center sites, make them more financially and environmentally sustainable, and improve the redemption experience for Vermonters. It temporarily increases the handling fee while the Producer Responsibility Organization is stood up so that we don't lose any more redemption centers in the meanwhile. Early on in this process I recognized that this bill had bipartisan support, particularly if we included the temporary handling fee increase, so I was proud to have the Senate minority leader report this bill to the Senate. 

H.727 - Data Centers
Senate Natural Resources and Energy (SNRE) added valuable protections to

• ensure grid stability
• reduce air pollution
• blocking 24/7 fossil fuel-powered jet engines
• required battery storage and impact fees.

We strengthened the water regulations by prohibiting open-loop cooling systems.  We also corrected language that came from the House that would have allowed additional costs and negative effects to be borne by Vermonters. The Senate ensured that that would not happen. It was unanimous coming out of committee, passed the Senate 26-3, and I'm proud that every member of SNRE took part in reporting this bill. Unfortunately the Governor thought it was too strict and vetoed it. 

S.202 - Plug-In Solar
I worked hard to vet this bill ahead of the session with stakeholders to smooth the path and it fit well with my expertise, limited as it is. The main thing this bill does is cut red tape for these devices so that homeowners have an easier time going from purchase to plug-in. Right now, a homeowner would have to go through the paperwork process governed by the Public Utility Commission before plugging one of these in. This bill ensures that these devices are safe (compliant with UL3700 and National Electric Code). The main safety concerns are available in this document from Clean Energy State Alliance, which I found very helpful. The bill prevents condo associations or mobile home parks from prohibiting them, but it allows building owners to have reasonable restrictions for their tenants. It also makes it clear that the building owner is not obligated to do any wiring work for their tenant to have one of these. If you already have a net metered system, you can't have one of these, because the electric meter can't distinguish between electricity generated through the net metered system versus the portable solar device. 

S.325 - Updates to Act 181
This is one of the most important bills that came out of my committee and ultimately passed the legislature. Most notably, this bill repealed Tier 3 of Act 181, which would have created extra regulations for critical natural resources, and it repealed the road rule, which would have created more regulations regarding forest blocks. Because there needed to be a lot more vetting and conversation with landowners affected by this process, this bill asks the Vermont Council on Rural Development and the Conservation Districts to come up with a plan for how to engage with the public on what may come next. How could we modernize the current use system to help protect critical natural resources? How could we incentivize and honor the stewardship work that landowners are doing? What are the main drivers of the loss of working lands? Zooming out, I do think it's important for legislators to be reflective on how things are going and if things are not going well, that we are humble enough to change course. This bill embodies that willingness. Democracy is an iterative process. I started the version of S.325 that passed specifically because I heard that the roll-out of Act 181 was not going well. The Senate started with a delay of implementation so that we could hear more feedback. And then we heard a lot of feedback in a hurry! And that was actually quite helpful. I'm glad that this bill asks for a public engagement plan for the future so that we can engage especially rural Vermonters in crafting whatever comes next. 

S.218 - Salt Contamination Reduction
​This bill would have set up a voluntary program for private commercial salt applicators to learn best practices about salt-spreading. If these salt applicators keep sufficient records of their best management practices and a slip-and-fall type accident occurs, they would be provided some liability protection. This is modeled after a very successful program in New Hampshire, the Green Sno Pro certification. And like NH, we would have offered this to municipalities as well. This is all in an effort to the reduce the amount of salt on our roads, parking lots, and side walks, while still salting to a safe level. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed this bill, for reasons that I find questionable. I'll probably have more to say on this later. 

Priorities for Next Year

Of course there are bills that I wish had not been vetoed or had gotten across the finish line: 
S.208, requiring that federal law enforcement not hide their identity. 
H.740, would have created a GHG inventory from fuel sales, broken out by municipality or zip code. 

Looking forward, though, we must find ways to 
1. Protect our democracy, our elections, and our neighbors
2. Take action on climate change
3. Build more housing (in general), but especially housing for working, disabled, homeless, and senior Vermonters.
4. Reduce the cost of healthcare, and make Vermont a more affordable place to live.

There are many more issues of course, but those are some that rise to the top for me.  What makes your list to work on for next year? I'd love to hear from you.